  Go to LAN285 - Brahms
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The Independent, January 2009
'5 Stars
If Brahms himself had
been recorded playing his own music, this,
I believe, is how it might have sounded:
the young Czech pianist Libor Novacek
gives these majestic pieces a dazzling
sweep and splendour. His formidable
technique gives him the assurance he
needs to let the music sing, while the
almost-too-familiar Intermezzi come out in
fresh colours, and the less-often-played
Sonata is a revelation.'
Kevin Harley Gramophone, October 2008
'For his third and finest CD so far Libor Novacek shows himself deeply sensitive to the interior light burning beneath the surface of Brahms's often dark-hued later masterpieces. What unfaltering poise and tonal translucence he achieves throughout Opp 76 and 116. Less ebullient than, say, Rubinstein or Perahia in the second Capriccio from Op 76, his playing is so finely "worked" and controlled that even here he captures a reflection and nostalgia at the heart of such music, an "eternal note of sadness" (Wordsworth). His poetic refinement in No 6 is a far cry from Glenn Gould's perversity where he reduces Brahms's sense of elegy to an inane gabble, and if Novacek dims the radiance of No 8, keeping its exultance on a tight rein, he remains musicianly to his fingertips. Here once more he locates an underlying poetry denied to less subtle or engaging pianists.
A master of inwardness, he also sets the storm clouds scudding menacingly across No 6 and shows that he's as swashbuckling as the best of them in the early F sharp minor Sonata, resolving every thorny and perverse difficulty with ease and lucidity. The Landor sound (Potton Hall in Suffolk) is of demonstration quality and I can scarcely wait to hear this exceptional young artist in more Brahms and in the widest possible range of repertoire.'
Bryce Morrison Classic FM Magazine, October 2008
'The three titles on this disc come from three different periods of Brahms's career. The Second Sonata (1853) was one of the pieces that so impressed Robert and Clara Schumann when it was played to them by the young composer at their first meeting. Like the Piano Sonata No.2, the first of the Eight Piano Pieces (1878) was dedicated to Clara; the group as a whole consists of short works that combine passion, humour and despair in equal measure and comes from the next period in the composer's career. Finally, the ageing, melancholic Brahms is enshrined in the Three Intermezzi (1892). This is a highly rewarding programme, and one to which the young Czech pianist Libor Novacek brings clear textures, warm tonal colours and an insightful musicality.'
Jeremy Nicholas Piano News, Germany, September 2008
'For a long time Libor Novacek‘s thoughts and feelings have revolved around two fixed
stars in the piano‘s heavens: Liszt and Brahms. He has already expounded his view of
Liszt well on his last Landor CD. Now it is Brahms‘s turn and here he proves himself as a
pianist who projects himself with great seriousness into the music of the great Romantic, and
in the process succeeds in bringing us extraordinary interpretations. Above all we have not
heard the F sharp minor Sonata of the 19 year old Brahms played in such incandescent and
passionate style for a long time. Most surprising is that the work in Novacek‘s hands feels
integrated despite the strong individualisations of its component parts. It is the result of an
excellent combination of phenomenal sound control and distinctive awareness of form and
structure. The end result is amazing: suddenly the F sharp minor Sonata stands no longer as the
little, still a bit immature junior brother of the two later sonatas, but as a powerful monument
of Romantic piano music which can stand on its own two feet without difficulty alongside the
sonatas of Schumann, Chopin and Liszt. All these qualities we find again to a lesser extent in the
Op 76 eight piano pieces and learn to love in this (till now) neglected cycle of middle Brahms.
Only in the three late Op 117 Intermezzi is one aware of a little inhibition and slightly incomplete
communication, despite many subtle moments. However that changes nothing in my judgment
that what we have here is one of the most important and most significant documents of Brahms
interpretations of recent times.
Interpretation: 5/5
Sound: 5/5
Repertory valuation: 5/5'
Robert Nemecek International Record Review, September 2008
'Normally, solo Brahms recordings collect together sonatas, variations or shorter pieces, but here Libor Novacek has chosen a programme that offsets works from all three periods of Brahms's creative output, ranging from the youthful passion of the F sharp minor Sonata through the middle-period mastery of the Op.76 works to the autumnal musings of the Op.117 Intermezzi. Few pianists are equally successful across the entire spectrum of Brahms's output - Katchen, Klien and Lupu spring to mind as notable exceptions to the general rule - which makes Novacek's achievement here all the more impressive.
In the tricky F sharp minor Sonata - the closest Brahms ever came to permitting Lisztian outbursts of Romantic generic rhetoric - Novacek lies somewhere between Katchen's physically propulsive intensity and Klien's poetic Classicism. As a result the octave bravura feels less invasive than is often the case, and the finale's structural fantasy emerges as unusually convincing. No one quite rivals Zimerman in this work (a prize-winning DG account coupled with the First Sonata that unaccountably the Polish master later withdrew), which combines electrifying spontaneity with peerless technical command. Yet even in such distinguished company Novacek's Schubertian grace and clear-sightedness pays real dividends.
Novacek's refusal to become emotionally heated at the slightest provocation also works wonders in the the Op.76 Klavierstücke, whose profound emotional changeability often encourages pianists to over-play the music's extroversion-interversion axis. Here the cycle emerges as a single emotional entity, with each piece growing in and out of its bedfellows with supreme naturalness. Novacek emerges as a master of multi-linear articulation, giving independent strands of simultaneous musical material their own identity. He cocoons the A major 'Intermezzo' in a Debussyan haze of time-suspending wonderment and also gets far more out of the C major 'Capriccio' finale than is often the case.
'It really is wonderful how things pour from him', enthused Clara Schumann upon receipt of copies of Brahms's super-compressed late miniatures. 'It is amazing how he combines passion and tenderness in the smallest of spaces.'
Despite their apparently 'miniature' status, they provide a compelling insight into the true character of this elusive composer. Once again Novacek proves himself a Brahmsian of distinction, with readings of radiant sensitivity and tantalizing understatement. Some might crave a more overt response to Brahms's skin-rippling harmonic suspensions, but Novacek reminds us that no matter how old Brahms may have made himself look by the 1890s, the music's autumnal hues were the product of a man still in his early sixties.'
Julian Haylock International Piano, September 2008
'The piano works of Brahms so rarely receive the public hearings that they deserve, but happily there is no shortage of young lions of the keyboard with the necessary technique and maturity to meet the huge demands of this music in the recording studio. Among them is the young Czech pianist Libor Novacek, who evidently lacks nothing by way of courage and enterprise.
He opens with Brahms's Second Sonata, never an easy piece with which to gain converts. The first movement has an elemental virtuosity that is at once arresting, but which is never permitted to obscure the more reflective moments, as he proves himself to be an artist of vision and circumspection. The stark outlines of the following Andante are sparingly portrayed, every note assuming a grave significance in this terrible desolation, admirably conveyed with a spine-chilling simplicity. The Scherzo comes as no little relief, although the sense of unease is maintained, nowhere to greater effect than in the innocent-sounding trio section. The finale is finely judged as Novacek proves himself to be the master of subtle rubato and brings a mordent wit to proceedings, particularly with the quotations from Schubert.
The eight Piano Pieces are a point of departure into the realm of the miniature keyboard form with which Brahms was occupied for the rest of his life. Each is played with an artistry and musicianship that is a joy to behold. Novacek shows himself to be an artist of formidable powers and acute musical understanding, from the restless, latent menace of the opening Capriccio to the sunnier disposition of the second, and from the hugely difficult complexities of the C sharp minor Capriccio to the understated finality of the concluding one.
The Three Intermezzi op.117 are very much taken at the composer's tempo markings, allowing the hushed atmosphere of the first and the gentle insistence of the second to unfold at leisure, an approach that makes the closing bars of the third unbearably poignant. A disc for the discerning Brahmsian.'
Richard Evans Guardian, September 2008
'Czech pianist Libor Novacek's considerable reputation rests primarily on his Liszt performances, though he is also a superb Brahmsian if this startling recital is anything to go by. This is big-boned playing, very Romantic and covering a huge dynamic and emotional range, so if your taste in Brahms is for something reined in, this may not be for you. Contrasting the early F sharp minor sonata with later groups of piano pieces and intermezzos, Novacek places the emphasis on the turbulence that runs through Brahms's entire output. The Sonata seems at times overly violent, yet we're also conscious of how Brahms, by laying the work out on vast symphonic lines, is experimenting with form in order to find new expressive means. In the Op 76 pieces, Novacek continues to explore the turmoil that lurks beneath such disarming pieces as the folksy B minor Capriccio or the graceful A flat major Intermezzo. The high point comes, however, with Novacek's performance of the Op 117 Intermezzos, which are heartbreaking in their quiet intensity.
'
Tim Ashley Classical Music, September 2008
'Novacek's strong sense of architecture in marshalling an absorbing unity
from the sprawling, turbulent sonata is matched by the yearning delicacy of
the Op.76 and the intermezzi.'
Phillip Sommerich BBC Music Magazine, August 2008
'Brahms’s official Piano Sonata No. 2 was largely composed before the official No. 1, and it’s a fascinating revelation of a road that the young composer decided not to take – the ultra-Romantic one. It’s a kind of ‘Fantasy-Sonata’, and its abrupt and extreme juxtapositions of emotion, dynamics, contrasted gesture are as daring as anything that Liszt’s ‘New German’ followers could have produced. Libor Novacek, who has already recorded an estimable Liszt recital for Landor Records, well understands this: if anything he accentuates the contrasts, with battering fortissimi giving way to silky, whispered pianissimi – but this is to enhance the turbulent nature of the piece, and Brahms’s achievement of equivocal balance in the almost Schubertian main tune of the finale.
Novacek brings out, too, the awkward, uncompromising nature of the op. 76 Klavierstücke, his wide range of accent and touch emphasizing their strangely experimental nature as well as their lyric underlay. It’s in the first two of the op. 117 Intermezzi that his approach seems fairly conventional (if very slow) – but then in No. 3 (slower still!) he conjures an ambience of half-lights and emotional hesitancy that is much less comforting than the melodious nostalgia that lesser players weave from the notes.
The Sonata is among Brahms’s least-recorded piano works, and though there are excellent versions available from, among others, Katchen and Richter (both on Decca), I feel Novacek may have set a new benchmark here, while his op. 76 stands out strongly from other accounts. Altogether an impressive release.
PERFORMANCE *****
SOUND ****
'
Calum MacDonald
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